Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me 1.
Being a Disciple - Following Jesus means to be His disciple. Jesus set a requirement that is not half-hearted to those who wanted to become His disciples. Unlike the Jews who wanted to become a disciple of the scribes, the requirements that must be followed is to learn the law and obey it with all the existing tradition. They will become a respected religious leaders. Jesus had a challenge that the product discipleship He will contrast. They must deny themselves, meaning that refuse to self naturally wants to be respected, want to be served. They should be 'dead' for personal ambition. "Bearing the Cross" is the willingness to follow the example of Christ's suffering and it must be done continuously.
They should measure success in achieving its objectives as successful in terms of Jesus. This is called The Cross Way, way of the cross. Way of the cross is humility, sacrifice, and service (humility, sacrifice and service). All that characterize life in self-denial. No one is naturally willing to humble themselves, willing to sacrifice and serve. But that's the challenge of Jesus, anyone who is willing to become a disciple, traits that should appear, undeniably under any pretext.
Motivation: Let us judge our success not from the perspective of the world. Because the popularity, status, achievement will not make God interested if not born out of the way of the cross as a disciple of Christ.
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